Czech ombudsman condemns bad practice in including children with disabilities in mainstream schools

Quarterly report released by the Czech Ombudsman last month points at significant obstacles encountered by families when placing their child with a disability into regular schools.

Ombudsman describes a complaint raised by parents of a young child with intellectual disability against a regional authority to provide support enabling their child to attend a regular school. The school director asked the regional authority to provide funding for an assistant teacher who would support the child in the learning process. After repeated appeals from the school director to provide adequate funding for the assistant, the regional authority replied that the costs for such a worker were too high to be provided by the region. According to the officials, family or a legal supporter of the child should therefore cover the additional costs for learning in regular school.

Ombudsman pointed out the significant gaps in the schooling system hindering inclusive education. A clear evidence of discrimination towards the child with a disability was remarked by the ombudsman. The decision taken by the regional authority is therefore not legitimate as the authority was unable to justify the reasons which it had taken into consideration and which led to denying the request.

According to the article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, state authorities must make sure that persons with disabilities are not deprived of their right to inclusive education. The Czech Republic, as a state party, therefore has the obligation to implement measures which support the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular schools.

Good practices from the other countries indicate that in some cases, the presence of teaching assistants supporting several children can be a potential solution. Children with special needs do not necessarily require support during the entire learning process and therefore the assistant can split his or her time among several children.